LABEL DESIGN TRENDS TO HAVE ON YOUR RADAR RIGHT NOW

The year I’m sure has already brought in the taste of a new gin, wine, whisky or beer for you right? Out of interest, what made you adventure away from the norm (besides a recommend) was it the label design? Yeah it was! It’s ok, our heads are turning too.

While it’s easy to think of attention grabbing drinks labels simply as designer black magic, there is thought behind it, a pattern or even a “trend” you might say. Here are what we believe to be the ten label design trends you need on your radar right now.

Or if you think your designs skills could come in handy and fancy joining the team – Jobs@YesMore.co.uk

LABEL DESIGN TREND 1 – FIRST UP (IT’S A CLASSIC) GO SIMPLE

Simple with a touch of the vintage is coming into play this year with Kings County Distillery showing just how little information you need to display on your bottle to grab attention. Mixed with a small touch of the homemade feel it adds to the small batch nature of the product.

LABEL DESIGN TREND 2 – HANDMADE

Consumers want a handmade product and producers are proud to have made something by hand. So it’s only natural that this element is making itself shown front and center. I’m talking freehand “scribble” fonts, scrappy stained paper textures and doodle style sketches. Like King’s County above Dillon’s Small Batch Distillers have utilised this aesthetic to add a small batch feel to their product with some handwritten script flair.

LABEL DESIGN TREND 3 – TAP INTO AUDIENCES LIFESTYLES

Drinks reflecting who people are and what they enjoy doing (besides enjoying their favourite drink) are becoming increasingly popular. As Instagrammable hobbies such as .hiking, sailing and adventuring rise, certain drinks can become the perfect fit in the latest shot on someones channel. Even favourite TV shows are becoming fertile ground for label design as “watch a long” parties and the all powerful Netflix grow in popularity.

Photo credit – @longtrailbeer (Instagram) @jodie_knapton (Twitter)

Long Trail Cranberry Gose Beer and Ommegang ‘Bend The Knee’ beer

LABEL DESIGN TREND 4 – VIBRANT GRADIENTS

Remember creating WordArt in Microsoft back in school? Well a much better version of that look is coming back in a strong way, the vibrant gradient is making a come back even with companies outside of the drinks labelling world like current Gods of social media Instagram applying it to their branding.

Photo credit – thedieline.com

Blend, a premium fruit & vegetable drink brand

LABEL DESIGN TREND 5 – LONG COPY NAMING

Chose a sentence over a name and you’ve made a bold statement to fill most of your label with text. Evil Twin Brewing have brewed several beers with this longer naming convention and it’s created an iconic style for their beers. Long copy is slowly coming back in the world of advertising after being shunned for the best part of two decades. Now it’s starting to be seen in loud “brutish” seriffed fonts anywhere from underground ads to museum posters.

Evil Twin’s beers left to right – It’s Like I’m Having the Most Beautiful IPA and the Most Terrible Nightmare; Dontcha Know Stout; I Always Felt Closer To IPAs Than I Did To People; Diane, Never Drink IPA That Has Been Anywhere Far From Galaxy

LABEL DESIGN TREND 6 – STRAIGHT TO GLASS

Get your design onto your bottle and skip the middleman. Smart die cuts being used on other products work in this vein. Skipping the printed on label gives you a chance to show off the unique colouring of your product and creates an automatic premium feel for your audience to associate with your brand. Making the bottle part of the product is an interesting additional piece of the purchase for consumers and aids in the trend I mention next.

Photo Credit – vinolok.cz

Silent Pool Gin

LABEL DESIGN TREND 7 – THINK ABOUT REUSE

Packaging built from sustainable and recycled materials has been popular for a while (rightfully so!) but reuse is the aim of the game this year. How better to keep your brand being seen in someone’s day to day? Think thick, hearty feeling glass, unusual bottle shapes and raised glass lettering. Aspects which give a great look and a feeling of worth to a bottle you won’t want to throw away. Like Dan Aykroyd’s Crystal Head vodka but you know, scale it back a bit.

Instagram photo credit – @hendricksgin; @bulleit

Left to right – Bulleit Barrel Strength Bourbon; Hendricks Gin

LABEL DESIGN TREND 8 – LOW ON LOGO

This is specifically coming from the craft breweries and even more specifically the cans they design. Designers are aiming less and less to drag your eyes to the breweries logo and are keener to use every inch of space to showcase their art. If you’re brave enough to try this the results can be striking.

Instagram photo credits left to right @beertable; @toolbeer; @craftbeergirl.nl

LABEL DESIGN TREND 9 – INTEGRATION

This is way of literally weaving your brands name, product run or product information into what is going on in the label. I haven’t seen too much use of this in label design just yet but it’s getting popular in web design and if used correctly will make for a top notch label run.

Work by Vladimir Biondic – dribbble.com/Biondic

LABEL DESIGN TREND 10 – ICONIFICATION

Pretty much an extension of minimalism, iconfication is the art of making something real simple. YesMore Agency’s own logo is an example of iconification. We took a grain and a glass and deconstructed it down to its most simple form. This effect is being used in an array of branding for tech companies, navigation for websites and app icons all looking for the simplest way to get their message across over the last couple of years. But it’s finding its way into drinks labelling…

Instagram photo credit – @purebrewing

Pure Brewing’s Fly By and India Pale Ale

So there’s our ten! Any we didn’t mention that you’ve noticed? Let me know in the comments. More articles on the subject of design in the industry will be coming out this year, just subscribe to our blog to keep updated.

For more news from the biz you can sign up to our newsletter in the right hand column of this article.

Like this:

About The Author

Dan Hooper is an experienced and award winning professional in the fields of social, digital and online marketing.

A keen brewer for well over a decade, his beers have been tasted & approved by some of the UK’s top sommeliers.

Dan currently resides in Brooklyn New York where he runs one half of the alcohol marketing agency YesMore. His Instagram channel @BrewWithAView is home to thousands of beer fans around the world; inspiring travel and the drinking of great beer.

Inspired by the tastes, sights and sounds of the Brooklyn craft beer scene he plans to be launching another brewing based side project soon...